Marriela. Anyone who knows her, knows she's high intensity. She's high energy. She's highly distractable. She's profoundly talkative. She's highly unpredictable. She's Marriela. She's NOT quiet, nor is she one to take the phrase "just a minute" lying down. Her minute is a nano-second. Her birthday is a lifetime away no matter how close we're getting. She thinks she'll be 30 in just a few months, and wakes up daily announcing that she wants to be 30 now. Why 30 you ask?
Well, at 30 Marriela will be having/adopting her baby. She fluctuates almost hourly whether she will have more than one, if it will be a be a girl, or a boy, if it will be adopted or born out of her tummy (you know that may hurt she states) and whether they will be Chinese or not. In addition to having children, she will be getting married to a "brown" man who she is claiming will have to change his name to "James" like on the movie Look Who's Talking. She will be acquiring several vehicles including, but not limited to, Lisa, our night nurse - her black Jeep will be for Marriela's husband. She is getting our neighbor's white Jeep for herself. She will be getting our red van because it has the video set up for her babies. We spend a lot of time collecting things she is "saving" for her baby when she's 30. Some days I can't wait for her to be 30! It's exhausting all this planning.
Marriela is also a huge fan of the microphone. We spend many hours looking at different types of microphones on Google. Oh, and I must give props to Google and the images option, it has saved me many, many headaches!!! She wants to sing on the stage at the Fairgrounds and just LOVED her time on the stage at her school talent show. Though I have seen her sing this song many times. . . seeing her sing with her heart and soul was truly overwhelming for me.
The Climb Please click here to see her performance.
Marriela is truly a challenge to parent. It is highly rewarding, and truly exhausting. We have known since she was 3 we would be dealing with mental health issues. She was born to a crack addicted mom who was diagnosed with bipolar AND schizophrenia. We had prayed that the 2 were drug induced more than genetic, but were also willing to take on the challenge should it present itself. It did, and early. She has been medicated since she was 3 1/2 for things from ADHD, to mood disorder, to bipolar. She is developmentally delayed. She is autistic like. She has severe anxieties. She is a combination package and we'll probably never have a single defining disorder... that's ok. We make as many informed decisions as we can in regards to medication. We conceded last year that we needed to become much more aggressive in her medications as she was just very unhappy and struggling most of the time severe agitation and anxiety. Lithium is working for her. Not perfect, by a long shot, but it's so much better than the 3 hour tantrums and the pervasive anger and frustrations. She would never smile or laugh. Now, she is easily humored, though we spend a great deal of time "stomping" out fires all day long. She is a hot head, but she can be redirected now and that's a huge improvement.
She is afraid of bathrooms, water, pink dog life jackets, furry Christmas stocking and many many more. Whenever I am admitted with one of the other children, I have to send a picture of the bathroom for her too see. She assess it and then determines whether it's "too scary" to visit or not. She will NOT enter the basement for fear of the Fuzzy Top Christmas Stockings. That actually works in my favor (we tend to hide things down there we don't want the kids to see, like presents and such LOL).
In the whole scheme of things, Marriela is by far our most time consuming child. She is also the most rewarding in regards to small successes. When she has a good day, EVERYONE notices. She is also the one that says some of the funniest things and her take on life and day to day events is always highly unique and humorous.
It's all about the Climb.
Marriela. Anyone who knows her, knows she's high intensity. She's high energy. She's highly distractable. She's profoundly talkative. She's highly unpredictable. She's Marriela. She's NOT quiet, nor is she one to take the phrase "just a minute" lying down. Her minute is a nano-second. Her birthday is a lifetime away no matter how close we're getting. She thinks she'll be 30 in just a few months, and wakes up daily announcing that she wants to be 30 now. Why 30 you ask? 
No comments:
Post a Comment